Evernote

At a Glance

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Evernote mostly succeeds as a note-taking app, but performs best when used in conjunction with the desktop app and Web browser plug-in.

According to the video on its Website, Evernote "grabs your info from anywhere and takes it to the magic cloud of elephants," a wondrous place where pink elephants process your data, index it, and make it searchable for easy retrieval. Elephants aside, Evernote is a comprehensive, cross-platform note-taking application that integrates hardware, software, and other third-party apps. The free app captures text notes, voice notes, photos, or files and stores them in the cloud for easy retrieval.

Also available as a computer application and browser add-on, Evernote has partnerships with Canon, Nokia, Lexmark, Samsung, AP Mobile, Seesmic,and others to enhance its usability. The integration with Seesmic, for example, allows user to save Facebook and Twitter items into Evernote.

Evernote mostly succeeds with its mission to be useful, fluid, and efficient. The top of the home page features a search bar and four buttons, each for a different type of data capture. You can access your Notes, Pending Notes, and Settings and log out by pressing your handset's Menu button. You can geotag your Notes with GPS location and also search by location. You can add tags and organize your Notes into folder-like Notebooks. Notes are also searchable by tags, titles, or keywords. However, the search function is reportedly a bit fussy if you don't have the note tagged correctly.

Optical character recognition (OCR) is one of Evernote's best features. Evernote can recognize, index, and search printed and handwritten text, including text within photographs. This is useful to quickly capture business cards and organize contacts. It's also handy to keep notes from work meetings in one place and store travel information such as confirmation numbers, plane tickets, and hotel invoices for expense reports. Evernote can also keep maps, itineraries, To-Do Lists, and voice memos. It also plugs into the Android Web browser so you can use it to save links.

However, Evernote cannot store notes on your device. This means that if you're out of reach of the magical cloud of pink elephants--that is, you have no Internet connection--you're totally out of luck. Photos and voice notes need to be downloaded from the cloud every time you want them.That's a real pity because Evernote is an otherwise competent and versatile app with a lot of potential. Currently, it performs best when used in conjunction with the desktop app and Web browser add-on.

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At a Glance

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